Revolution: The Chosen One(レボリューション:選ばれた者,Reboryūshon: Eraba reta mono?) is an Sanese animated television series that premiered on KTK in 2012. It was created by Junichiro Suzuki and Yoshihiro Shimizu as a sequel to their series Adventures of the Chosen One, which aired on CDS from 2002 to 2010. Several people involved with creating Adventures, including designer Joaquim Dos Santos and composer Yoritomo Kusatsu, returned to work on Revolution.

The series is set in a fictional universe where some people can manipulate, or "bend", the elements of water, earth, fire, or air. Only one person, known as the "Chosen One", can bend all four elements, and is responsible for maintaining balance in the world. The series follows the father of the new Chosen One, the successor of Long from the previous series, as his family struggle to balance the fate of their family and the destiny of the world.

The series has been a critical and commercial success. It obtained the highest audience total for an animated series in the Okaiken in its television history, reaching the record mark at 21 million viewers, a third of the Sanese population. The series was praised by reviewers for its high production values and for addressing difficult sociopolitical issues such as social unrest and terrorism. It was originally conceived as a miniseries consisting of twelve episodes, but it is now set to run for fifty-two episodes separated into three seasons ("books"), each of which tells a separate story.

Series overview

Revolution: The Chosen One was initially conceived as a twelve-episode miniseries. KTK declined the creators' pitch for an Adventures follow-up animated movie based on what then became the box-office movies The Legend of the One, choosing instead to expand Revolution to 26 episodes. The series was expanded further in July 2012 to 52 episodes. These episodes will be grouped into four separate seasons ("books") composed of 12 to 14 episodes ("chapters") each, with each season telling a stand-alone story. Revolution: The Chosen One will conclude with the fourth season.

Story

Setting

Like its predecessor, Adventures of the Chosen One, Revolution The Chosen One takes place in a world home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Each nation has a distinct society, wherein people known as "benders" have the ability to manipulate and control the element of their nation using the physical motions of martial arts. The show's creators based each bending style on an existing martial art, leading to clear visual and physical differences in the techniques used by Waterbenders (T'ai chi ch'uan), Earthbenders (Hung Ga kung fu, for the most part), Firebenders (Northern Shaolin kung fu) and Airbenders (Baguazhang). In addition to these four nations, a new nation called the United Republic, was founded by the last 'chosen one', Long.

At any given time, there is only one person in the world capable of bending all four elements - the Chosen One (also known as the Avatar). The Chosen One is the divine spiritual entity of the world continuously reborn and reincarnated in human form. When the One dies, this almighty and divine spirit/soul is reborn and reincarnated into the next nation in the Cycle, according to the implied correspondence of seasons to the nations' cultures (Winter/Water Tribe; Spring/Earth Kingdom; Summer/Fire Nation; and Autumn/Air Nomads) and must master each bending art in seasonal order, starting with their own native/birth element. Additionally, the Chosen One possesses an immensely powerful spiritual ability called the Avatar State, which briefly endows them with all of the knowledge and abilities of all past Avatars as a self-triggering defense mechanism, which can be made subject to the will of the user by extensive trial and training in total chakra energy harmony. If an Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle is broken, and the Avatar identity will cease to exist. Through the ages, the succeeding Avatars have served to keep a relative equality among the nations; whereas in the story's mythology, the Avatar connects the material to the spiritual world, and vice versa.

Synopsis

The story centres around Sangilak, a former general in the Northern Water Tribe. After he left the north, he married and fathered 3 children: the Avatar, Annaya, as well as twins Uki and Siluq.

Book 1: Harmony

Sangilak begins his story as a juvenile in the north. Being he eldest and heir to the ruling family, he recalled that he felt so much responsibility and would want to live a much simpler life with a happy family. On the next scene, he is playing with his younger brother, Tanuk when his brother suddenly tripped and began to cry. Sangilak then offers his help, which made Tanuk smile. His father then told him to not help Tanuk, much to his annoyance. In the next scene, Sangilak then turned to Tanuk and told him, "Whatever happens between us, remember that I will be always by your side." It then skips 15 years later, with Sangilak recently being promoted to the general and Tanuk struggling with military duties. Once again, Sangilak offers his help, much to the annoyance of his brother. Sangilak, in dismay to his brother's changing attitude, then obtains a scroll from a drawer and opens it, which reveals the full opening sequence.

As originally announced at the Okaiken Animex, the opening sequence will be gradually filled with details with each episode.

Skip 2 years later, the tension between the 2 brothers began to intensify,

Book 2: Darkness

Book 3: Light

Book 4: Fate

Cast and Characters

Production

Development

Book 1: Harmony

Book 2: Darkness

Book 3: Light

Style

Revolution: The Chosen One is produced mainly as traditional animation, with most frames drawn on paper in Okaiken by the animators at Studio Mir and scanned for digital processing. Each episode comprises about 15,000 drawings. The series makes occasional use of computer-generated imagery for complex scenes, most noticeably in the animations of the pro-bending arena.

Revolution: The Chosen One is produced in the Okaiken and therefore is a work of Japanese animation ("anime"). In strict sense, it is strongly influenced by traditional anime style: Its protagonists (a superpowered heroine, her group of talented, supporting friends, a near-impervious villain who wants to reshape the world), its themes (family, friendship, fear, and death) and the quality of its voice acting as well as the style of its visuals are very similar to those of other anime series such as Brotherhood or Trigun. A notable difference from such series is the absence of lengthy opening and ending sequences set to O-pop songs: to save broadcast time,Revolution: The Chosen One openings and endings last only a few seconds. Another difference is the use of black and white backgrounds; the style has never been attempted in television history.

Music

Revolution: The Chosen One is set to music by Yorimoto Kusatsu, who already wrote the music for Aventures. For Revolution, Kusatsu is the sole composer while the lead sound design was given to InHouse Music; the two collaborate with Foley artists and producers on the soundscape of the series.

The concept for the score was to combine Traditional Sanese, Esdikkom and modern compositions. For the open, an epic-styled music provided by the Shaydian Production Two Steps from Hell were used, breaking away from the traditional anime opens. Shaydian musician Philip Glass was contacted by Kusatsu for some ideas that will be implemented in the animation. The result was a fast paced, yet subtle musical genre called "Newsen". The music was nominated and won several awards worldwide.

A soundtrack CD, Revolution: The Original Music, was published on 12 July 2013.